Longest non-stop Elvis impersonation-world
record set by Suresh Joachim
[Feb
3]TORONTO, Canada--professional world record breaker Suresh
Joachim successfully set a record of 55 hours for longest
non-stop Elvis impersonation.Joachim's 55 hours of singing broke
the previous world record for the longest Elvis impersonation –
43 hours and 11 minutes.
At 3:30 Saturday afternoon, after shaking and
singing and wiggling his hips for three days, and undoubtedly two
long nights, he still had the energy to finish off with an impressive
finale, said his wife and biggest fan Christa Joachim.
"My voice is gone," Joachim rasped in a phone
interview. "Learning songs is hard. I had to memorize
them, follow the beat – and I had to dance!"
“Towards the end he was performing really well,”
said Christa, who took three days off work to cheer him on during
mall hours. “He even kept dancing for the last full hour,” she said,
adding that a sizable crowd had gathered to see him reach the record.
He
was not allowed to remove any piece of his costume throughout the
55-hour performance. "It was disgusting wearing the wig all the
time. I was sweaty," he admitted.
"I
listened to Elvis for 14 days non-stop. When I went to the car,
when I walked around, I sang with him. He admitted to a touch of
stage fright at the start. "I was struggling for words, but by the
end, I looked like the real Elvis. Everyone was cheering and I danced
so well."
It was a different story when he began the attempt,
dressed in a white suit with gold trim, a wig, and large sunglasses.
Considerate of the early 8 a.m start time, he warmed up the crowd
and began the challenge with one of Elvis’s softer ballads, the
“Heartbreak Hotel.
Some of the early morning shoppers looked at
him blankly, others simply ignored him. But Suresh
Joachim-- aka Elvis -- kept shakin’. Even mall security
guards and record observers had the pleasure of being serenaded
through the night, “He was being watched, so he couldn’t sleep or
cheat,” said Christa.
The Man Who Was Elvis is understandably ecstatic
about his record. "I love it. I love it," he said. "It's good for
my two sons. They'll achieve different things than I have, but they'll
learn from me."
The professional record breaker's past accomplishments
include running up and down an escalator for seven days and standing
for 76 hours and 40 minutes on his left foot. "Getting married with
79 bridesmaids and 47 groomsmen was the easiest to break," he said.
Suresh
Joachim sang a total of 41 songs over and over again during
the record-breaking attempt - the only Elvis songs that he had learnt
in preparation for the event. “He didn’t even know any Elvis songs
when he decided to do this,” said Christa. “So he had to practice
these ones lot,” she said, her newfound disdain for Elvis songs
clearly evident.
And how was the record holder celebrating his new title?
By sleeping. “He’s exhausted,” she said. “He crashed as soon as
he came home.”
This is the 53rd record Suresh
Joachim has broken since he began challenging world records
in 1996. Other titles he holds include crawling non-stop for 56
kilometres, and standing on one foot for 76 hours. His first record
was 1000 consecutive hours of running.
He drummed continuously for 84 hours in Switzerland;
ran on a treadmill for 168 hours to cover 659.27km in France; bowled
for 100hrs in Canada; carried a 4.5 kg brick in a nominated ungloved
hand in an un cradled downward position for 126.675km in Australia.
Suresh has been traveling around the world performing much different
type of world records.
...But this is not the end, he’s already started
planning the next one:playing the guitar for 55 hours and hopes
to break more than 300 in the next 10 years.